Getting too Old for this

 

hipster drag

this photo proves that anyone can adopt the body and attitude of a hipster, if he or she tries hard enough. after all, trying too hard is what the hipster does best.

all you need to do is get a pair of non-prescription spectacles (bet your eyes aren't even bad enough for prescription lenses, you angsty bastards), cut your fringe or bangs in a most unflattering style, make a whole load of vain, douchey friends and get on the mailing list for untamed youth sessions at fiction. maybe get photo-whored by these scavenging 'social' photographers who seem to be infesting the scene like fruit flies to marmalade, 'making art' out of anti-art itself.

oh, and don't smile in photos. i did. but then again, i tried too hard.

I Need to Write for Me

Won't freeze when you say freeze.
Won't jump, let alone high.
Won't dance circles around good manners, or civility, or formality
If one expects to sit down and have nothing happen, there will be silence and nothing, indeed, will happen.
Stumble over stories that are itching to be told
for business, or pleasure, or morality.
I need to write, but not for you.
I need to write for me.

Can't please everybody. Tried too hard to do that, and it's gotten me nowhere.
                                       Can't please everybody, so please yourself.

STRIVE

'the infinite search for cool'

this pretty much sums up the lifelong endeavours of most cape town twenty-somethings.

contemplating the Truth and other things

wicker. samsung DSLR. 2010

Of essence. samsung DSLR. 2010

Portrait of A Birdwatcher

cracks in the city

samsung DSLR. 2010.

Sweetheart premiere

official premiere of Sweetheart showing at the Labia on Orange this Thursday, 2 Dec, starring Inge Beckmann, presented by Be Phat Motel.

The film is set in the 1950s at the height of the Cold War, where a young housewife finds herself alone in a remote farmhouse. The derelict emptiness of her immediate surroundings turns into a cyclical search for her lost family, encountering a space of limbo occupied only by a few dazed survivors.

sick of the West

I think for a while I have been at a loss. I've been far too concerned with what others should say and how far they'll try to pass judgement.

I am trying now to disbelieve all of that. There is much to be done.

But on my own terms. Let the others run aground, because all I can do now is keep my head above water, with a paddle or none.

Vocation

working. Polaroid. 2010.

freakonomics. Polaroid. 2010

got rained on

    wherever you are,
   wherever you may go,

         however angry.
      (there will be anger)
       however afraid
     (there will be fear)
    however disbelieving
(there will be doubt)
      
                                        be alive.

MY BED.

tracey emin, 1998. 79 x 211 x 234 cm

so why am I showing you a picture of an unmade bed in all its pride and glory, with remnants of the night before strewn all round its feet? condoms? worn panties? empty booze bottles?
the stained sheets and fag butts are all evidences of the morning after a nervous breakdown. what happened last night? well, we can only guess. is she afraid of intimacy? perhaps not. maybe she just cannot help herself. 

My Bed was exhibited at the Tate, as well as shortlisted for the Turner Art Prize.

                               we've all had this bed at some point, as delicate and imperfect as we ever were.

barcelona City

protest egg

dinner for one. polaroid. 2010

one and three egg. polaroid. 2010

LOVE AND HATE EXHIBITION

Sunday 21 November

Am I Collective uses the Garage as a project and exhibition space, creating experimental projects, events and platforms for local and international artists, illustrators, designers and other creatives.

In true City Bowl forward-thinking, there will  be art, merchandise, rum and coke and a live performance by Kalata.  


Buitenkloof Studios
8 Kloof Street
Cape Town




They also use the Garage to park cars in at times.

linguirony

       
 here's something i just realised and found ironic and pretty funny.

           à la Mode: tendance, french. fashionable, in fashion
                           Modest: free from vanity, egotism, ostentation or showy  extravagance

                        ah, semantics.

hunting blind, 2010

'still alive'

I came across this photograph by American photographer Irving Penn. He is best-known for his fashion and portraiture work, but this one stood out rather terribly. considering my vendetta against KFC's abuse of chickens, this one was infinitely disturbing, but fascinating too. Penn was known for his still-life and found object arrangements, a little like the later Warhol Polaroids. However, Penn was considered ahead of his time decades before Andy, successfully fertilising the 'undeniable beauty of these bodies expressed through [his] prodigious art' (//ARTnews.com)

credit: Marieke at French Violation

papier collé

these are some of my first collages, products of boredom, too much sudden free time and adobe photoshop.

there will be more.

i read

i read for the sake of eligibility

i read for leisure

i read for pain

i read for healing.

i read for fun and games.

i read to scare myself

i read on the train

i read while i wait.

i read for reality.

i read for Time.

i read for semantics and other things.

i read to laugh

or to cry.

i read to learn.

above: by me, a polaroid edit of jane austen's pride and prejudice.

The biggest irony of the Facebook company is that in meaning to bring people together, it in fact became the big bad perpetrator in a web of broken friendships and nasty legal clampdowns.

The Social Network was intended to be a neutral portrayal, said David Fincher, the director, of whom I am a bit of a fan thanks to that marvellously done twist at the end of Fight Club. The Social Network is dark and reverberting and gritty. The script is totally witty. I giggled a bit at the sarcasm. The story is generic - it is about betrayal, genius and the strains of unexpected success on relationships. It is truly 'a product of its time.'  It's set in the dorm rooms of Harvard University. And Mark Zuckerberg is an asshole.

Figure 2. the first cut is the deepest. Samsung. ISO 200. 2010

time capsule

"The artist intended his Polaroids to serve as time-capsule glimpses of a specific era -- namely, the '70s and early '80s when he was at the height of his fame. The fact that Polaroid recently discontinued its line of signature cameras renders these photographs doubly historic -- a long-gone era as captured by a dead technology."

LA Times article here

#Life Savings

Lately I have been very interested in Warhol's Polaroids, particularly his portraits and still-life subjects. I decided, thanks to the inevitable forum of artistic debate around these, to try my hand at my own point-and-shoot venture, in true Warhol production. My own attempts show how simple it really is to shoot still-life. using ordinary household objects, just like Warhol did in the 1970's, I have arranged a collection of subjects in front of a plain white background. this emphasizes both the mundanity and formal interest of each object. you can decide - are they ordinary or spectacular?


Figure #1:  life savings. Samsung. ISO 400. 2010.

Covonia Triptych

since 1968 Covonia's cough remedy has soothed sore throats, chesty coughs, colds and flu. this particular bottle of the pure magic was brought all the way from England by a concerned grandmother. Thanks, Gran.

these Polaroids were generated by a lovely gadget called poladroid. plenty fun for when you're feeling warholesque.

Will & Kate

breaking news on sky is currently covering the engagement of Prince William and Kate Middleton, officially announced by Clarence House this morning. The couple, after nine years of dating, became engaged in October during a trip to Kenya.

The Royal Wedding, soon to be announced, will be the most celebrated royal occasion since the marriage of William's parents.

Sorry, ladies. Dashing Will is officially taken.

A Royal Wedding for Will and Katie via dailymail.co.uk

LWD.

little white dress found me while i was browsing through a rail chock-a-block with washed out numbers at a second hand clothing dealer. 'thrifting' is the most selective and budget-friendly way to shop. you need to have patience, though, and a good eye for a rare piece of the sublime floating amongst the flotsam and jetsam.

when i saw little white dress i thought of the following things.

• marilyn monroe and the subway grating
• tea and crumpets with wedgewood china
• homecoming in 1950.
• dates with handsome men
• filter cigarettes
• frock parties and similar occasions

caff-savvy

CAFF-SAVVY

I used an old illy coffee tin as a window-sill decoration. added some topsoil, a few parsley seedlings and a scoopful of coffee pulp for nourishment.  

some city bowl tribute to coffee.

 my shrine to starbucks.

sightings



regulationpartypose



clyde&i. thunda spotted us at fez. woo. aren't we infamous?





clara&I



bourgeois boast

Perhaps sometimes we have to be full of ourselves so that we don't feel pushed under.

Perhaps. sometimes, vanity is the only way we can bluff.

NARS

NARS Cosmetics have bronzed and buffed and tinted the mercurial high-end looks of the likes of Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell. It was founded by top French make-up artist and photographer,  Francois Nars.

Here are a few of my favourite essentials.

copacabana multiple: for lips, cheeks and body. £ 27.00

 









bronzing brush, for effortless application. £ 42.00



pre-makeup primer with SPF £ 25.00



dolce vita rouge. £ 17.00





eye makeup remover £ 18.00





orgasm illuminator, to highlight skin with weightless radiance. £ 21.00